<b>Status</b> - CX lounge at Seoul Incheon waiting to board delayed flight to Taipei. Wondering why I'm flying TOWARDS a typhoon...

<b>Oct 4-5 - Art Nouveau in Takayama</b>

I forget now where I heard about the museum in Takayama devoted to Art Nouveau. It certainly wasn't in Lonely Planet, which doesn't mention it at all. I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau - I've been known to go to Washington just to catch an exhibition, and on my last trip to France I went Nancy specifically because I had heard that it was the home of the French version. So, Takayama would have made my itinerary even if it hadn't been a convenient stop between Shirakawa-go and the rest of the Japan Alps.

It was still raining when I left the farmhouse, but I did a better job than JAL at keeping my luggage dry. Between the built-in rain cover for my Eagle Creek backpack, and my umbrella, only my long-suffering feet got a little damp on the way to the bus stop. I was more concerned about my lungs, but happily a local woman pointed out the "No Smoking" sign to the elderly gentleman puffing away under the shelter.

The no-smoking revolution has yet to hit Japan. I actually thought I had mis-heard when I was asked whether I wanted smoking or no-smoking seating at the first restaurant I entered. I live in a tobacco state, and I haven't been asked that question for several years. But public transport is smoke-free.

The bus ride to Takayama disappointed - mostly tunnels and mostly rain. I was glad to check into my surprisingly posh hotel (the Spa Alpina), and go out to find lunch. Eating soba noodles and beef in a very popular little place near the station, I also found a companion. An Australian woman sitting next to me at the counter said that she, too, was an Art Nouveau fan.

While I enjoyed her company, and we indulged in a beautiful (and delicious) afternoon tea together, I got a reminder that I travel better solo. I left my umbrella in the stand outside the museum, and it wasn't until the next day that I realized that when we left I had forgotten to retrieve it.

The museum was worth the loss of my (easily replaced) umbrella. Most of the major figures of the movement were represented, with plenty of glass, and rooms devoted to Majorelle (France) and Mackintosh (Glasgow). The prize exhibit was an amazing Lalique glass fountain that once graced a Paris arcade.

The next morning I was back to Japanese sights, taking a taxi to the town's float museum. Takayama has two big celebrations each year, which feature two- and three-story high floats. In between times four or five of the floats can be seen in the museum (the rest are in tall, narrow "garages"). Unfortunately they are behind glass, which makes photography difficult, but they are unquestionably spectacular. Probably even more so on parade, but I have an aversion to crowds... Then I took a look at the morning market, which was just packing up, and wandered through the historic section, which I thought not particularly interesting. Too many souvenir shops for my taste.

I had eaten sukiyaki for dinner (at Suzuya), even dipping the meat in raw egg. Although I draw the line at drinking raw egg neat, I have to admit that the sukiyaki tasted good. I could have done without raw egg showing up again at lunch, though, which I ate a rather up-market place next to a butcher's shop.

I got to the bus stop (just outside the train station) in plenty of time for my ride to Matsumoto, as I wanted to be sure of a front seat, but no more than six other passengers shared the bus with me for the whole two-hour trip.

Sounds like a good place to stay in Takayama. I also was not crazy about its "historic" section...like you, I found it too souvenir oriented, and that was 10 years ago. The are nouveau museum seems to have been of enough interest though to make the trip worthwhile.

To answer about the bus Kanazawa to Shirakawago. There are 3 buses in each direction per day. BUT, they only go to Shirakawago. Much nicer and less crowded are the villages in the Gokayama area. Kathy and I only stopped at one, but there are several. We went to the most compact one, Sugunuma, but along the same road are several more of much the same yet slightly different. We've made a day of them several times. One of them, whose name escapes me now, has a "prison" house up at the top of a steep hill that I always think is interesting, but with Kathy's ankle I didn't take here there. There are very occasional buses between the villages, but I've never seen one of them in all of our trips out there. Taxis...also never seen one. Rent a car, for sure, or if I'm free, we have a 7 seater :).

Thanks for the info. We are planning on driving the "Romantic Road" in a future trip from Nikko to Ueda City in the Nagano Prefecture and had also wanted to explore more of Matsumoto area. The Goko & S Go village areas would be a nice addition to that drive so will probably do those areas then also.

We need to make a stop in Kanazawa for a few days on that future trip and say hello to those people with the 7 seater ;)

Aloha!

More well-written stuff, still both interesting and useful. I've been hoping to get to Takayama during one of the festivals, probably somehow combining with a visit to Naoshima/Benesse Art Site. (That trip is at least 18 months away. If your umbrella is still outside the museum, I'll pick it up for you.)

I loved the Museum of Art in Takayama! I believe I read about it in the Rough Guide, and it was even better than I had hoped. Glad you enjoyed it!

Rizzuto, the umbrella may still be there when you get there. I was recently returned upon my return my pocket translator I had left in a Kakunodate hotel more than 19 months earlier,lol

thursdaysd, We are only going to Seoul this trip but hope to use it a spearhead into further future S Korea trips in the future. Love your pictures on your blog. I can see from your pics what your eyes focus on during your travels, very interesting, you have a keen eye for the detail.

I think I remember a lady from Australia doing a report sometime ago on this forum about the Art museum in Takayama maybe that is where you read about it? Now you have me looking to add Takayama to the never ending list of places to see in Nippon,lol

Aloha!

HT, good thing you didn't leave a take-away package of sushi in the Kakunodate hotel; it might not have kept as well as the translator.

Typhoon Megi brought heavy rain and landslides to northern Taiwan. I hope you have arrived Taipei OK and that your travel plans in Taiwan are still manageable.

Greetings from Tainan! Landed safely through clouds and rain in Taipei yesterday - much kudos to Cathay Pacific who managed to keep the luggage dry (am I still annoyed with JAL? - you bet!) Very humid and rather windy with intermittent heavy rain, but got some sightseeing in yesterday - LOVED the temples - so old China. Advice from T.I. is to NOT go up to Sun-Moon Lake on Sunday, and am thinking of spending the two nights in Taipei, since I had to go back there to get to Taroko Gorge.

Hope everyone in Hong Kong and southern China stays safe.

rizzuto - the umbrella is an expensive folding model designed to survive being blown inside out (some brand beginning with K), pale blue with white design....

ht - if you're in Insadong in Seoul (hopelessly touristy but usefully situated between two palaces), I had good lunches at a place on the third alley on the left going south on the main street (Insadong Gil 12) - it's the first place on the left, and does a proper traditional spread for one person for a very reasonable price. Try the beef and mushrooms. Also, not to be missed macarons - the rose raspberry is good but the brandied pistachio is fabulous - at a place called Armandiere on the north side of the big street north of Insadong.

<b>Status</b> - in Tainan, waiting for Megi's rain bands to come through tonight and tomorrow morning. I'm on the ninth floor with lots of windows (the hotel upgraded me) and the wind is really whistling out there!

<b>Oct 5-7 - Matsumoto</b>

I loved the ride to Matsumoto - lots of mountains and not too many tunnels (although one was so long it had cut-outs for breakdowns). I had wanted to stay in a ryokan between Takayama and Matsumoto, but even with KimJapan's help I hadn't been able to find one that sounded good that was both near public transport and willing to take a solo foreigner. So I had decided to just stop off in Kamikochi on the way for a little hiking - obviously I had had to abandon that plan, too, and just went straight through. I had booked the Toyoko Inn in Matsumoto, and found it, like the one in Tokyo, a great deal for a single. The room might be small, but it had everything I could want. As with every room I stayed in in Japan, aside from the temple and the farmhouse, it had AC and en suite bath, and secure internet. (While I appreciated the security, I rather missed the freedom of wifi, as the wired connections kept me chained to the desk.)

I'm not quite sure what I ate for dinner the first night. I do know that the first dish was steak - tasted good but a little tough. Since I was still hungry I followed it with some chicken on sticks. I'm still wondering what part of the chicken could be crunchy... The next night I played it safe, eating steak and salad, with an actual knife and fork instead of chopsticks. I also found a "French" cafe at the train station where I lunched on a chicken salad pita - followed by an absolutely delicious chestnut and sesame roll just oozing cream.

My main sightseeing objective in Matsumoto was the castle, which kept me occupied for most of the morning. The associated museum didn't interest me much, but the castle was a great improvement over Nijo in Kyoto. The same formidable foundations were topped by three black and white towers. I was pleased that my bad foot held up while I climbed the steep stairs inside, although I skipped the topmost floor, and came down most of the staircases (more like ladders) backwards. Apparently it's the oldest wooden castle in Japan - many castles having been destroyed during the Meiji Restoration in the 1800s. I found it rather surprising that it had survived since 1595 - was it never besieged, or did the Japanese not use fire arrows? Surely it would have been fatally easy to burn it down.

In the afternoon I took a bus to Utsukushi-ga-hara Spa, picking it over Asama because LP said the setting was more beautiful. I suppose it was pretty enough, but you couldn't see the hills from the bath, so I'm not sure it was relevant. The "town" was dead, and the bath was only technically outdoors, with just a small triangle of sky visible between the walls and the roof.

A word about Japanese buses: you board at the back, taking a numbered ticket from a machine. You leave at the front, dropping the cost of your ride, in coins, into a box by the driver. You find the cost by looking at your number on a screen at the front. But, since the amount is determined by the distance, you don't know what it will be until right before you get off. And you need the correct change. (You can get change from the box by the driver, provided you know you need it.) I'm sure this system works well for locals, who already know the cost of their trips. It's a real pain for strangers, who don't.

The morning of the 7th I took the train back to Tokyo and urban Japan. Not that Takayama and Matsumoto are villages, Matsumoto has nearly a quarter of million inhabitants, but they are completely dwarfed by Tokyo, with twelve and a half million. I was traveling through cityscape (not very attractive cityscape) well before the train pulled into Shinjuku. I had saved Tokyo for last because I'm not generally fond of very large cities, and I didn't want it to color my reaction to Japan. I was right to do so...

Sprained ankle , missing umbrellas, typhoons.....yikes! Got to love those small city buses and trying to figure the fare. If you have far to go it usually won't cost more than 1400 yen till the end of the line if on the country buses from town to another town take a look at the sites below

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2015.html

http://www.nouhibus.co.jp/jikoku_pdf/english_naka.pdf

BTW, I was over at your blog again and you have some fantastic pictures there.

Aloha!

Hope all the wind and rain goes away soon so you can resume your wonderful adventure!

Thanks ht - glad you like the pix. More (all raw footage) at http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/R...-World-2010-11 - the passwords are the name of the gallery.

I really am starting to think this trip is jinxed! It's probably my own fault for complaining that my 2004-5 RTW went so smoothly there were no good stories, lol!

Stay safe. I've been thinking about you as I read of the typhoon hitting Taiwan.

Love your Kanazawa and Japanese Alps photos - we were in a lot of the same places! But I can't get into your Kyoto and Koya-san ones...I tried to do everything lower case adding spaces on either side of 'and' and '-' but only got error messages....
Glad you're feeling better - it's hard to do those castle steps with good feet. ;-)

Mara - sorry - that was the first one up and was japan - have changed it to kyoto. Totally unedited - best ones are on the blog - mytimetotravel.wordpress.com

Kathy - thanks. Looks like I may dodge this one. Glad I didn't go further south, though. And whistling wind? Thought it was a figure of speech. It's real!

great pics, thanks

Great pictures and blog.

I have been following you, when I can, with great interest.

Thanks for taking us along, thursdaysd.

How's the ankle now? I hope much better....if still a problem, try ice for about 5 minutes at the end of a day....brings the inflammation down and helps with the healing process. This works for me anyhow. Good luck.

I haven't logged on to Fodors for a while, thursdaysd I am sorry to hear of your troubles and I do hope the rest of your trip goes better. Hope the ankles heals quickly.

Bob - glad you like the pix, didn't realize you were still reading. I'm still waiting for the bearers to show up - a covered palanquin would be good....

The ankle is a lot better, thanks, although that foot in general is still unhappy. I have been taking taxis more than usual, they've been quite cheap in Korea and here in Tainan, but it's not always feasible. Typhoon brought a few bouts of heavy rain, but nothing major here.

<b>Tokyo Metro "System" wins booby prize</b>

<b>Fair warning:</b> This is a rant.

In the last nine years I've been on the road a total of 31 months, and in that time I've ridden a number of the world's subway systems in both Europe and Asia. Until this trip I thought New York had the grimmest system and Moscow the longest transfers, and they tied for worst. No more. Tokyo's is hands down the worst system, or rather non-system, I've encountered.

First, it's not one system, it's three. Buy a ticket for one set of lines, even a supposed "day pass", and it doesn't work on the other two. Buy the wrong ticket in a station serving two systems and you're stuck with it. It's for a given distance, right? So you try to use it at another station on the same line, can't do that either.

Since there's more than one system, there are multiple stations in the same place. Want the Asakusa station? There are three. One is for the regular trains to Nikko - that I can handle. But the other two? Both subway stations. Need to transfer? Often that means trekking up one set of stairs, out into the rain, back in and down another set of stairs. And a nice big sign showing you where the station is? I saw precisely one, in Ginza. Even if you get to stay in the same station, it's a route march to transfer.

About those stairs. The Japanese may have come to grips with the needs of the blind (although those special strips in the pavement do seem to stop in odd places) but not with those with mobility issues. Escalators? Elevators? You jest, right? Maybe there's one elevator for an entire looong station. If so, it's likely at the end you're not. Maybe there is one escalator, or even two. Going up. I could get up stairs reasonably well, it was going DOWN that I had problems. Escalators going down? Of course not. Escalators going all the way from platform to ground level? Again, no.

Then there's the language issue. I'm not unreasonable. I know I'm in Japan. I'm willing (and able) to to look at the maps and figure out the price. I'm willing to use the terminal that says it will provide English-language help. I can make a pretty good guess at how the ticket machines work. But I need for the map I'm looking at to include the line I want to use... I'm convinced that the Japanese make it more difficult than necessary on purpose to generate stupid foreigner stories. Case in point:

I'm staying in Asakusa. I'm leaving from Haneda Airport. The helpful lady in the T.I. office wrote the route out for me in great detail (very simple, one train change, no platform change), starting out on the Asakusa line. So when I get back the night before, ON the Asakusa line, after I follow the arrows to the exit I want and clear the ticket barrier, I look back to see the arrows pointing the way to the Asakusa line, and I look round for a ticket machine for that line. But I'm now in the Ginza line station, and even the English language terminal won't recognze Haneda as a destination. So finally I ask the guy in the ticket office. Guess what? He has a nice big sign, in English, telling you how to buy a ticket to Haneda - HIDDEN IN THE OFFICE!

He could put it up on the wall, and let the foreigners read it at their leisure, but then they'd know what to do, and that would be no fun, right? Then I find another catch. I want to buy a ticket today, when I have no luggage, to use tomorrow, when I will have luggage. Can I do that? No, I can't. (Good thing I noticed the tickets were date-stamped.) When I express quite mild dismay at this news I clearly violate the Japanese code, because the guy goes completely blank on me. I cease to exist and he just stands there. (I know that technique - I've used it on persistent Indian salesmen.) Well, I feel the same way about the Tokyo subway non-system. Total fail.